DWCGQ: Fall 1992 Vol. XXIII No 3 Page 80 SOME DEWITT COUNTY POLITICIANS IN 1882 In its 6 October 1882 edition, the Clinton Register published brief biographical sketches of the local candidates on the democratic ticket. Excerpts from those biographies appear below. GEO. B. GRAHAM Candidate for County Judge, 33 years ago, when 8 years of age came with his father and family to this county from Ohio. He was reared on a farm in this county, near Waynesville. He attended the district school in winter and worked on the farm in summer. In this way he acquired a sufficient education to begin teaching, at the age of 19. He taught and attended school alternately Until he acquired an education equal at least to any lawyer in this county. He volunteered in 1862 and for a short term became a member of the 68th regiment, Illinois Volunteers. Returning with his regiment he again began teaching and farming until February 1865 he married the oldest daughter of John D. HUTCHIN, deceased. After marriage he farmed one year and then moved to this city and began the study of law. Two years later he was licensed by the supreme court and immediately formed a partnership with Wm. FULLER and has ever since been engaged in the active practice of the law . . . . A. V. LISENBY The candidate for County Clerk, was born in this county, September 11th, 1850. When only four years old his mother died, leaving him desti- tute of the child's best earthly friend; but he had the good fortune to be placed under the care and guidance of his grandmother, a most estima- ble Christian woman. In 1857 his father married a second time, when the little family were brought together again, but after a few years the family circle was once more ruthlessly broken up by the relentless mon- ster, death, first a half brother was taken, followed soon by the step mother. Gus, as he is familiarly known, was again deprived of a home, and this time, was thrown on his own resources, but he was now old enough to make his own way and maintain a more independent living.... by work- ing as a farm hand for his uncle and others. At the age of 15, he come to Clinton and entered the public schools, where he received a fair com- mon school education, and at the age of 21 years was appointed deputy County Clerk under his father, which position he held until the close of his father's term in November 1873. W. W. GRAHAM, his present competitor, was then elected County Clerk, and Gus continued as deputy with him for six months, when he engaged with B. W. HAND in the hardware business in Clinton, where he continued until 1877. In that year he was elected County Clerk by a majority of over five hundred votes . . . . JAMES A. WILSON The subject of this sketch, Mr. James A. WILSON, the present in- cumbant of the county treasurers office, of DeWitt county. . . . was born in what is now known as Wilson township, DeWitt county, October 30, 1839, in which township he continued to live until he was elected county treas- urer in the fall of 1878 and in the fall of 1878 he removed to Clinton, where he has lived for the past 4 years. Mr. WILSON began business for himself in 1861. In 1862 he married, and with untiring industry, the couple, after 15 years of hard work on the farm succeeded in making for themselves and children a comfortable home In 1877 he was elected county treasurer, by a large majority THOMAS GARDINER The democratic candidate for sheriff of DeWitt county, is the third son of Thomas and Elizabeth GARDINER, who moved from Indiana to Illinois in 1843, and settled in Hurley's Grove, a short distance south from the present site of Farmer City, when the subject of this brief sketch was in his sixteenth year . . . . [He] still lives near the spot where his father settled, 39 years ago, and where he has grown to mature manhood . . . . In 1851 Mr. GARDINER was married to Miss S. E. McKINLEY, and in 1862 . . . he volunteered to fight the battles of his country in this wise: When company I was ready to join the 107th at Clinton, there being no railroads, the neighbors hitched up their wagons to take the boys to Clinton. Mr. GARDINER, among the rest, fur- nished a wagon and team and went with the soldiers. After they got to Clinton, he concluded to volunteer and share the fortunes of war with company I. A friend drove his team home, and he sent word to his family that he had volunteered . . . . He was discharged in the winter of 1864 . . . . In the year 1870 the constituents of Mr. GARDINER elected him [as sheriff] . . . . He was reelected in 1872 MISS MAGGIE E. WRIGHT Candidate for superintendent of public schools, of DeWitt county, was formerly a scholar at the Methodist Female College, of Jacksonville, Ill., and ever since her departure from that college in 1862, she has been identified with the educational interests of this county and most of the time been engaged in teaching, she having had charge of different schools in this county for the past 16 years . . . . During the last 6 years she has been teaching at Sprague school house, about 5 miles northwest of Clinton . . . . A. J. MORROW Mr. A. J. MORROW, familiarly known as Jack, the democratic candi- date for coroner, is a native of Kentucky, but has been identified with the interests of DeWitt county for about thirty years, about twenty years of that time has been spent farming, after which he learned the carpenter's trade which he has since followed supporting a large family by hard work and rigid economy . . . . Bob Halsey [email protected] Viera, FL